Happy Sunday-before-Christmas morning. Is everybody getting a nice extended holiday this year?
I’m drywalling, mostly. But I thought I’d pop in with some links, too.
First (courtesy of JW), the inimitable Selco talks from experience about Christmas when the S has HTF.
Then here’s the story of how NORAD became Santa’s official tracker (and the Pentagon has reaped propaganda hay ever since).
Borepatch and Joe Diffie bring us “Leroy the Redneck Reindeer.”
Law enforcement grinches steal one couple’s green Christmas. As usual the story the cops relate smells higher than the cannabis.
And in California, victims of those horrendous wildfires are putting up Christmas trees where their homes used to be. A gesture of hope courtesy of a local disaster response team. Oddly enough, not one of the articles I found name the team or say whether it’s governmental or private, secular or religious. If you know, please post in comments.
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Although drywalling might not fall under the category of traditional Christmas activities, I’m enjoying the heavenly peace of being able to do it without interruptions or writing duties.
Then there’s the goodwill of the season. You know you’re a valued customer at the local lumberyard when you find yourself short a single piece of drywall (and while you’d love to have it, you stress there’s no real urgency at all) — and one of the employees gets his sons to deliver it to you in his own pickup truck at dusk on Christmas Eve Eve.
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There is no end to the resiliency of the human spirit, and it becomes more evident when we face challenges and diversity. Many of the wildfire victims will, come through this change and will be the better for it. Others will still be in a state of shock months from now not knowing what to do unless Big Brother tells them, or takes them by the hand. Those are the people who really need your prayers. We also lived in Ventura County for a number of years, and we managed to get through the big San Fernando Valley fire in the late ’60’s/early ’70’s where the fire moved west through San Fernando Valley and ended up encircling the community we lived in, Simi Valley. Our home was right on the eastern edge of the valley adjacent to Corriganville/Hopetown. The police came through and told everyone to evacuate NOW! This was also a time when wood cedar shingle roofs were in vogue at that time and I was up on the roof watering it down with a garden hose. My wife was pregnant and frantic and we evacuated, convinced we would never see our home again, and as we were leaving a fleet of fire engines were pouring into our small development trying to stop the fire before it got onto the valley floor. We stayed with some friends in the middle of the valley and endured a restless night watching the fire encircle the valley along the ridges, and at first light we hurried back to see if there was anything that could be salvaged from our home. I want to tell you that prayers do work; that and the selfless men who are our firefighters. They managed to knock down the raging brush fires with only a single wooden fence at the eastern end of our development, being scorched.Our home was covered with soot, but cleanable. As a result of the fire it was amazing how everyone pulled together to make our community a better place to live. That was many years ago in a place far, far away.
A couple of years after I left Vandenberg AFB, CA, for Germany, there was a wildfire on base that killed the base commander and fire chief, assistant fire chief and a heavy equipment operator who died later from the burns. They were together checking the status of the fire when they got encircled and trapped in it:
Honda Canyon fire, 32 years ago
A friend from high school had her cabin burn down in the Black Forest, Colorado, fire back in 2013. Her brother also lost his place in that fire. She’s since rebuilt.
Black Forest Fire Begins
Love that photo that you ended this post with, Claire!
Merry Christmas All!
“You know you’re a valued customer at the local lumberyard when you find yourself short a single piece of drywall (and while you’d love to have it, you stress there’s no real urgency at all) — and one of the employees gets his sons to deliver it to you in his own pickup truck at dusk on Christmas Eve.”
Methinks you’ve picked a good community to live in.
I know this is corny but the movie “It’s a wonderful life” about what the world would be like if you were never here, we should all play that game, think about the good you have done for others and be thankful you had the opportunity to be there to do it. The problem is a lot of us don’t see (or give ourselves credit) that good but it is there if you look I’ll bectha.
Let’s see what we can add to our lists next year;
Merry Christmas!
You know you’re a valued customer at the local lumberyard…
No doubt you are, Claire. But I agree with Comrade, you’re a customer at a valued lumberyard.
We have a Gibson’s Discount Center here. It was once part of the Gibson’s chain of hundreds of stores, but they went belly-up in the 1980s. The local one was independently-owned and kept the name, It’s the place in town to go if you can’t find something anywhere else, and they have the same kind of service.
They also have a great gun section, with people who are knowledgeable.
Local disaster response groups gave free Christmas trees and decorations
From a cutline under a photo, so apparently there was more than one group, coordinating.
Your lumberyard is not run by accountants. Any accountant worth his salt will tell you that running one piece of drywall to a customer is a money loser, and there ought to be a policy against it. Any retailer worth his salt knows the goodwill generated is worth more than all the accountants put together.
Merry Christmas Claire! And happy drywalling!
A couple of lighthearted reindeer songs; the first is musically great https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7zq3pW_1s1M and the second (to the tune of “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow”?) isn’t quite as accomplished https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jKSwndA0SxI
Joe Fingers Carr
Fireman’s Ball
Should help get that drywall done.
Then:
Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas Song
Merry Christmas all!
Gotta get that evil alcohol….errr….I mean weed.
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Any retailer worth his salt knows the goodwill generated is worth more than all the accountants put together.- Ron Johnson December 24, 2017 1:43 pm ……….
I had a similar when the local auto parts store delivered a part to me.Told me if I cant get in they are happy to do that after I took the bus there to get a part.
Then another time brought me a battery,and installed it,in the snow!Some businesses really get it and have old style customer service values.Good people.You know they get my loyal business.
Merry Christmas to all.
Appreciating your Wonderful Life thought, Comrade X. (And pretty much everything else spoken here.)
My dad was in retail.He told me 1 happy customer brought him 3 sales,1 unhappy customer cost him 10 sales.